Ottawa lawyer suspended three months for role in real estate transactions

A prominent Ottawa lawyer found guilty earlier this year of professional misconduct for his role in 17 questionable real estate transactions between 2003 and 2005 has been suspended for three months by a tribunal of the Law Society of Upper Canada.

A prominent Ottawa lawyer found guilty earlier this year of professional misconduct for his role in 17 questionable real estate transactions between 2003 and 2005 has been suspended for three months by a tribunal of the Law Society of Upper Canada.

Harry Gregoropoulos, a partner at the Ottawa firm Low Murchison Radnoff, was also ordered to pay costs of $25,000 for the law society’s investigation into his case and the subsequent 14-day hearing.

The law society had been seeking costs and disbursements of more than $127,000. It also asked the tribunal to suspend Gregoropoulos for eight or nine months to maintain public confidence in the legal profession.

Contacted Thursday, Gregoropoulos said he had no comment on the penalty imposed by the tribunal.

A majority of the three-member tribunal concluded that Gregoropoulos’s professional misconduct did not involve dishonesty or abdication of his practice and dismissed law society allegations that he had knowingly assisted in dishonesty or fraud while acting for clients in the 17 transactions in Vanier.

But the tribunal found that he should have known he was being used to facilitate dishonest or fraudulent transactions, was in a conflict of interest and failed to serve his client to the standard of a competent lawyer.

The transactions involved the resale of properties for inflated prices in short periods of time, uncertified cheques being given to the vendors, questionable deposits and other practices that put the lenders’ security at risk, the tribunal said.

The risk to Gregoropoulos’s lender clients involved about $4 million in mortgage loans. Years later, eight properties were sold under power of sale with a loss of $440,680, the tribunal decision said.

At the penalty hearing into his case, Gregoropoulos submitted nine reference letters from professional colleagues attesting to his good character, honesty and integrity.

He said the law society’s allegations had affected the health and wellbeing of his family and adversely affected his practice, adding that he had spent more than $250,000 on the tribunal proceedings.

He said he felt shame and embarrassment and recognized that his lack of judgment about how the transactions were carried out put his clients at risk.

“He didn’t ‘connect the dots’ as he should have and he understands that this has eroded public trust,” the tribunal decision says.

“We consider a three-month suspension to be appropriate, given the failures of competence and candour and the presence of conflicts of interest in these transactions,” the tribunal said.

The suspension, it said, “reflects the seriousness of his misconduct in terms of its potential effect on the clients, but it is at the low end of the range to reflect the role that the lawyer played.”

Frederika Rotter, chair of the tribunal panel, dissented from the penalty decision. She supported a six-month suspension for Gregoropoulos and felt he should pay costs of nearly $52,000.

This Week's Flyers

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.